Don't worry, Wii Remote - you still have a few more years left to live!

Some new details from Kotaku (unsourced, of course, as usual) tell us that the Wii 2’s controller measures exactly 6.2 inches in size, and has eight buttons, echoing the very first “leak” we heard almost word-for-word.

The more interesting part of this report, however, is that Project Café’s controller is designed to co-exist with the Wii Remote or a Wii Remote-style controller. Some games would benefit more from using the motion-centric wand-like option, while others (perhaps the more hardcore-oriented titles) would stick to the touchscreen gamepad.

It is unknown at this stage whether Nintendo will release a new “Wii 2 Remote” or whether they will continue to use existing Wii Remotes, but I’m willing to bet that they’d go for the second option, if for no other reason than that the controller would probably be virtually identical, and would save the 70-million or so existing Wii owners from having to re-buy what is essentially the same device with a new logo on it. That’s just my opinion, though – who knows, the “Wii 2 Remote” may turn out to be drastically different from the Wii’s.

Incidentally, what we’ve just heard sounds eerily similar to a prediction a user made a few days ago.

I doubt Project Cafe’s Wii remote simply will be the preexisting Wii remote and Wii remote +. One rumor mentioned better motion control to move. Nintendo could likely accomplish this by utilizing an improved version of Bluetooth and a better camera in the remote. All in all a twice as accurate Wii remote + may not cost more than 12 dollars to manufacture and if it isn’t packaged with the console originally could likely be packaged with a launch game like Pikmen or a Wii Resort style game.

If they create an entirely new remote, packaging it with Pikmin 3 sounds like it could be a real winner, since Pikmin relies so much on pointing. I imagine a “Wii HD Play” would sell buckets, too, though.

Why not use WiFi to connect the remotes? As far as I understand, it’s superior in that it’s more reliable, works over longer ranges, and offers significantly faster transfer speeds. If there’s gonna be content streaming to and from the controllers, I think Bluetooth may not be able to quite hold up with the bandwidth.

Jikayaki

The previous Wii remote depended on Bluetooth, so I merely assume a successor’s remote would likewise. Theoretically regardless of whether Project Cafe/Stream upgrades to Bluetooth 3.0 or utilizes a cheaper alternative depending on the controller their would be two streams from and to the console. Since the new Wii remote ++ wouldn’t be using the 802.11 link in Bluetooth 3.0 tor stream video it could utilize the link for faster response time with the console, but 2.4GHz wireless technology would be a cheaper alternative and accomplish the same thing.

I wouldn’t think they’d use WiFi for a number of reasons depending on how heavily the WiFi connection is being used for other online focused functions it would create a lot of noise and interference. In my opinion the rumored codename “Project Cafe” shows its going to have a heavy online function. Not just online gaming and direct download based content, but also a social focus and connectivity Nintendo has partly experimented with on their handhelds to a limited degree.